The UN has called for Israel and Lebanon to exercise the "utmost restraint" after a border skirmish resulted in fatalities on both sides.The US also voiced concern over the clash, which led to the worst bloodshed since the 2006 conflict with Lebanon terror group Hizbollah.
The incident on Tuesday left two Lebanese soldiers and a Lebanese journalist dead, as well as a senior Israeli officer.
Both sides gave different accounts about the skirmish, but the UN peacekeepers have disputed the Lebanese claim that Israeli soldiers breached the border.
"The last thing that we want to see is that this incident expand into something more significant," warned US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.
The UN Security Council expressed its "deep concern" about the incident and called on the two countries to "practice utmost restraint".It also urged the two parties to remember their obligations under the resolution that ended hostilities in 2006 - including a ban on all unauthorised weapons between the Litani River and the Blue Line border.
The Blue Line border was identified in 2000 as the area of demarcation between the two countries and it is monitored by the UN.
In its version of events, the Lebanese army said it fired rocket-propelled grenades after an Israeli patrol crossed the technical line of the border, despite commands from UN peacekeepers telling them to stop.
However, Israel's UN ambassador Daniel Carmon explained the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) were simply pruning a tree whose branches were tripping an electric fence on a road 80 metres south of the Blue Line.
He added that despite notifying UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon "well in advance of its plans", Lebanese snipers fired shots over the border.
A colonel was killed and another officer was seriously wounded.
UN peacekeepers have since confirmed the Israeli soldiers were cutting back a cypress tree that was indeed in their territory.
Following the skirmish further casualties were reported after a pre-dawn Israeli airstrike.
The Israeli military claim it fired after seeing a group of men approach the border. One man was killed and another injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Israel has responded and shall respond aggressively in the future to any attempt to disrupt the calm along the northern border or to harm residents of the north or the soldiers protecting them."
Hizbollah's chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told supporters via video link: "I say honestly, that in any place where the Lebanese army will be assaulted and there's a presence for the resistance, and it is capable, the resistance will not stand silent, or quiet or restrained."
There has been tension in recent months on the Israeli-Lebanon border following reports Hizbollah was stockpiling weapons.
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